00:00Growth will not come without a fight. Without a government willing to take the right decisions now
00:06to change our country's future for the better.
00:10One of those changes is a £7.9m investment into the country's water infrastructure,
00:15including new reservoirs, the repair of pipe networks and reduction of sewage discharges.
00:20But this comes with a reported average 10% rise in annual water bills across England and Wales,
00:25said to be in full effect by this April.
00:28But nowhere in the country is the water bill going to be as high as some parts of Kent,
00:31with Southern Water's average annual price rising to £703,
00:36an increase of £200 from its last annual price.
00:40Now, you can use online tools to find out who your water supplier is,
00:43and there are some overlaps between Southern and South East Water,
00:46but areas like the Medway towns are exclusively supplied by Southern Water,
00:50who have a higher planned increase than other water suppliers.
00:53They should have been doing this all over the years,
00:55and now we wouldn't have to put our bills up if they did this the last 20, 30 years,
00:59which they have not been doing and maintaining anything,
01:02and which is why we're having all the burst water mains due to the cold and the frost.
01:06Because they failed to invest in the infrastructure that obviously was part of their remit,
01:14they failed to do that, and now we have to pay.
01:17I think if they had invested in the infrastructure
01:21before the prices started going up, when things started going wrong,
01:24then maybe they wouldn't have to put the prices up in the first place.
01:26Some businesses in the Rochester area say they've come to expect rising bills,
01:30and split across the year, it will be more manageable.
01:33But some businesses say that it's just another one of these bills that they have to pay,
01:36and the number isn't going down on any of them, making them worried for their future.
01:40I think when you say £200 a year, in itself it doesn't sound like a lot for a business.
01:46However, when you reflect on all of the other additions that we've got in 2025 planned,
01:51it's just another thing that adds to a burden of what, as business owners, we have to face.
01:55And also as a homeowner, not just as a business owner.
01:59They comment that they haven't invested enough in infrastructure over the last number of years,
02:04but that actually isn't our burden. That's poor planning, for whatever reason.
02:10Southern Water say we understand an increase in bills is never welcome.
02:13Customers will see the sharpest rise this spring,
02:16to allow us to frontload investment into major infrastructure projects,
02:19with future annual increases falling for the rest of the 2025-30 spending period.
02:24While some people have questioned why the cost of infrastructure is being pushed onto the consumer,
02:29water companies say that they aren't in control of the investment,
02:32and that it lies with the regulator.
02:34Many in Medway say that during the cost-of-living crisis,
02:37further increases to their bills will only hurt them further.
02:40Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.
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